Hyper focused on creativity: Interview with Petra Leary
After watching your Loading Doc, Birds Eye! from 2019 for the second or third time it is apparent how much of an awesome human you are. You are such an inspiration to kids with ADHD, girls, young people and just people in general. What strikes me the most is how passionate you are about what you do.
How did you first get into photography and drone photography?
Originally I got into photography as a hobby and something I would go and do with my friends, I’ve always been pretty adventurous and into climbing things (even since I was super young, I actually tried to climb this huge tree as a 5 or 6 year old and fell out and landed my foot straight on a huge rusty nail, literally landing myself in hospital!). So my interest in climbing high things combined with photography made for some awesome photos.
Drones were something I always thought were super cool but didn't get into flying them until a couple of years later. My first time using a drone was when a friend of mine who was a drone operator at the time came and he came to shoot some aerial shots of the building I was working in. He gave me a turn on his drone and immediately I had to go and get my own. That afternoon I bought one!
Peter Benson is this awesome guy with a Ted talk about thriving and he talks about a Greek Philosopher, Plutarch, who says that the youth aren’t vessels to be filled but fires to be lit. He goes on to say that the core idea in human thriving is the identification of this fire.
It is obvious you have found your spark, what would you say to kids out there trying to find what it is that might spark their fires?
I guess the main thing for me and that really relates to anyone is not trying to conform to people's view of the ‘normal’, or trying to fit in. I'd say I was always pretty different and sometimes that can be hard especially when you're a kid growing up, but it's what makes you, you. I was lucky to have really supportive parents and for me art was always my spark. The types of art I focused on changed throughout the years but it's always been a strong aspect of my life and that creativity got me to where I am now. I think if you keep going with what you enjoy and who you are, it will show and things start to fall into place.
Tell us a little bit about your childhood?
Well, to start off I was born in a barn (actually a big old warehouse in Grey Lynn that looked very much like a barn) to my parents Kate and Tom, who were both very much art focused.
My Mum is an amazing painter, illustrator and very well known mosaicist. And my Dad was a sculptor and photographer. We lived there with my older brothers Sam and Jose.
My family is not your ‘normal’. I have one full brother, and 3 half brothers and a half sister, and I love it.
I was always very much a tomboy, I liked to climb trees, skateboard, build huts, go-karts and slingshots, and for the most part my friends were all boys.
I was one of those kids that was constantly on the go, the only things that would stop me was drawing or playing video games.
I got into a lot of trouble as a kid, water bombing cars, playing with fireworks, playing knock and run, things like that. It was always just for fun but some people didn't find it that funny!
My first primary school I went to, I ended up being told I was the ring leader of a gang (which I dont think was true) and then eventually moving to a different school after multiple meetings with the principal. My parents were always supportive and stuck by me, even in situations where I know I was probably in the wrong.
At the beginning of high school I was diagnosed with ADHD, the combined type of hyperactivity and inattention which made a lot of sense, I've always found it really hard to sit still and not fidget and struggle to focus on things I’m not interested in, or just doing things impulsively without thinking about the consequences. I remember a couple of teachers in primary school saying that they believed I had ADHD that early.
Art was the thing I really excelled at throughout all of my schooling years, but other things were a real struggle for me, and that made me hate school, I liked hanging out with my friends but that was it really, during high school I was stood down for things like lighting twink fires, making trip wires in the classroom which the teacher ended up falling on, smoking, having arguments with teachers and being kicked out of classes, and then I’d just end up wagging all the time with my mate instead of going. I ended up leaving high school early after an altercation with the principal, which I was actually pretty happy about at the time.
You are pretty open about how school didn’t work for you. What was it about school that made it so hard for you to like it?
I learn best from visual and hands-on tasks and at school that's not really the way things are taught, I struggled to sit and listen to the teacher and that would just end in my fidgeting and zoning out to what was being said.
I had teachers that could see I learnt differently and they were the cool ones and the ones I remember, I had an english teacher that would let me go and run errands to the offices in class time to let me burn off energy and a maths teacher that let me and another energetic friend run a couple of laps around the carpark if she saw us struggling to stay seated.
But for the most part I guess teachers have a format to classes and if you fall outside of that it can be really hard to learn.
What do you think your teachers could have done a little differently to change the script for you?
It's a hard one because they have to teach so many kids, but the little things like I have mentioned that some of the teachers would let me do were great ways to focus my energy.
If schools could cater to different learning styles that would be the best, there's a lot of people that struggle with similar things to me, and adapting classes maybe to be more hands on and less talking at you would probably help a lot.
At the heart of education in Aotearoa we talk about knowing our learners in order to plan effective teaching and learning, looking back do you think your teachers knew you well?
Some of them did for sure, I had an art teacher who I'm still in contact with now, and he was awesome. He was tough on me but also understood the way I learnt and would really push me to create things to the best of my ability but allow me breaks or back off if he could see I was stressing out too much. I also had a great dean who tried really hard to get me through NCEA, she was similar in that she was pretty strict but also funny and nice, she actually took me out of all my classes and made me work in her office for a couple of weeks to make sure I passed.
For most part though, I don't think the majority of them really did really know me that well.
Going through the schooling system with ADHD what were some of your biggest challenges?
Being bored was a huge factor, probably the main reason I'd act out and get into trouble. When you have a lot of energy and you're told to sit in your seat for hours every day - that is the worst. The other thing for me is ADHD makes it really hard for me to listen and really take in what people are saying to me without my mind wandering off, so that would mean I was being told information and two minutes later I had no idea what had just been said. I found fidgeting or drawing would help to focus but teachers didn't see it that way, to them that would look like you weren't paying attention.
Listening to you talk about your photography and your passion for courts and the symmetry, it seems like there was a spark just waiting to be lit if the teachers had the time, resources and ability to know you and your passions, or just allow you to learn in your own way, do you think things could be different in education, or should be different from when you were at school?
Yea definitely, I think when I was at school ADHD was known about but not as much as it probably is now so teachers didn't really know how to deal with kids that struggled. I'm sure that if they did understand how it affects a person and could adapt tasks to be more catered towards students with ADHD it would help so many people. One of the big things for me at least, is the frustration I get when things start going wrong and how that would make everything spiral out of control. If a teacher could understand that getting mad or annoyed at a kid who is struggling and acting out would just make things worse, and instead to just back off and give them some time to calm down it would work out better for everyone.
The fact I remember the teachers that did see and understand how I learnt, and that those were the classes I did a lot better in is proof really that if you can adapt tasks and classes to fit different learning styles the results will show.
Do you have any advice for whānau or teachers working with students with ADHD?
Hmm, I guess being patient is pretty important, and try to make work fun. Teachers that did that and that had a sense of humour were the ones I got on with the most.
Some people may not know that ADHD has many benefits, can you talk us through some of these?
Yes so there's a lot of positives to ADHD for sure. Having all that energy is actually awesome, not so much for class work but for life it's the best, I can just go and go. I've had so many people tell me they wish they had the energy I do.
And hyperfocusing is something that is actually awesome once you can harness it, it's the reason I can work on my art for hours, sometimes it's pretty crazy I'll just completely lose track of the day but it results in me creating these super intense collages, renders and lego creations.
You are really driven, passionate and focussed. We love what you have created and we love what you are doing for students across Aotearoa who live with ADHD. What are you currently working towards, what’s next for Petra Leary?
Thanks! At the moment I'm working on some new collages which I'm going to turn into animations, a couple of exhibitions too, and some publications that should be done soon!
See more of Petra Leary’s work at www.petraleary.com, and keep up with her latest adventures via Instagram @petraleary.
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